- Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by a Senate committee Wednesday over child safety on his platforms.
- In a striking moment, GOP Sen. Josh Hawley pushed Zuckerberg to face families whose kids were harmed.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was pressured to turn and face the families of children who were harmed by social media companies head-on during a contentious Senate hearing on Wednesday.
The shocking moment was prompted by Republican Sen. Josh Hawley during an intense hearing on online child safety before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Zuckerberg was among the five social media heads called to testify in the hearing, along with leaders from Snap, Discord, X, and TikTok.
Hawley asked if Zuckerberg had apologized to the families, saying "your products are killing people."
He then asked Zuckerberg if he'd like to directly apologize to the families who attended the hearings whose children were harmed or died from the impacts of social media.
Zuckerberg stood and faced the families watching the hearing: "No one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered, and this is why we invested so much," he said.
Families held photos of their children in the air as Zuckerberg addressed them.
Several parents of children affected by social media companies were listening in on the hearing, according to NBC News, including Tony Roberts, who said his daughter died by suicide after viewing a simulated hanging on social media.
"The bottom line is that we will never have what we want in this lifetime: our daughter back. So we're here advocating for change," Roberts told NBC News.
Many senators in the hearing floated stripping away legal protections from social media companies, meaning they could be sued for child pornography or other sexually explicit material on their platforms